Health insurance costs soar, workers
hit hard
Health insurance premiums rose five times faster than US workers’
salaries this year, according to a survey released on Sept. 9 that also
showed slippage in the percentage of US workers covered by employer
health plans.
Premium increases moderated slightly, rising 11.2 percent this year,
compared with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003, according to the poll of
3,000 employers by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But the pace of growth
is five times that of both inflation and worker income.
The percentage of people receiving health-care coverage at work dropped
1 percentage point to 61 percent in 2004 from a recent peak of 65 percent
in 2001, the Kaiser study found.
Employers are grappling with medical costs driven by steeper prices
for prescription drugs, doctor visits and hospital stays. Demand for
expensive new medical technologies is also driving health-care inflation,
experts said.
The Kaiser survey comes soon after the US Census Bureau in August reported
more people went without health insurance in 2003, with about 15.6 percent
of the population, or 45 million US citizens, lacking any coverage.
(Reuters)
Union reps protest at DuPont headquarters
Union representatives from DuPont and DuPont Dow Elastomers facilities
in Deepwater joined a protest in front of DuPont Co. headquarters in
Wilmington, DE on Sept. 11 where more than 30 Paper, Allied-industrial,
Chemivcal and Energy Workers (PACE) local members from New Jersey, Delaware
and Pennsylvania gathered. The majority of attendees were neon-shirted
workers from DuPont’s Edge Moor, DE plant, currently embroiled
in heated contract and wage negotiations.
Though speakers generally accused DuPont Co. of pushing far-reaching
management rights and outsourcing jobs, the rally largely focused on
negotiations in Edge Moor.
That facility manufactures titanium dioxide and employs roughly 200
people, according to Edge Moor Plant Manager Bland Dickey.
The union currently has an offer on the table. Workers are looking for
a three-year contract with wages included.
(Wilmington Sunbeam)
Salary strike ends at maquiladora
A rare strike at a Baja California manufacturing plant ended Sept. 9
after the Japanese owners agreed to a 16 percent salary increase for
the company’s 104 Mexican employees.
The factory, Mabuchi de Mexico, is a maquiladora that since 1993 has
supplied foam packaging bags and wood backboards to Asian television
manufacturers in Tijuana.
The base weekly pay for an entry-level worker has been $63 for a 48-hour
week.
The strike began late Sept. 3, after the breakdown of collective bargaining
talks between Mabuchi’s management and the union, known as Generación
Industrial 2000.
Leaders also asked for gloves and masks for all workers who required
them, said Aaron Pallares, the union’s secretary-general.
Pallares said the union’s main reason for calling the strike was
that the company has been having financial difficulties and the union
was concerned that the company would leave Mexico without paying the
workers.
Kenji Suyama, Mabuchi’s majority partner, said the company never
intended to leave Tijuana.
Unions have been weak or largely non-existent among Baja California’s
1,100 maquiladoras, which employ some 200,000 workers. (San
Diego Union-Tribune)
